Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor

by UBI Soft

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004Y7SZ
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 27, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,512 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Standard

Amazon.com Product Description

Return to the Pool of Radiance that spawned the golden age of computer role-playing games. Pool of Radiance 2 carries on the story of the first PC Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game: the Pool has resurfaced, and it renders everything it touches undead. The player must create a party of six adventurers and explore the haunted elven ruins of Myth Drannor in order to stop the Pool's evil influence.

Pool of Radiance 2 is the first game to use the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules. Playable character classes are Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Sorcerer, Monk, and Rogue, while the races include Half-Orc, Human, Halfling, Dwarf, Elf, and Half-Elf. Characters advance from 1st to 16th levels, allowing spellcasters access to 8th-level spells.

As you explore the ancient ruins of Myth Drannor, the Dungeon Master will communicate all important events and findings. Combat is based on turns, just as in the tabletop game. With a great single-player campaign as well as multiplayer support, Pool of Radiance 2 is ready to carry on the legacy of the famous Gold Box games and lead D&D RPGs into the era of 3rd Edition rules.

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Long awaited, huge disappointment, September 28, 2001

By 

passtheboards (CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (CD-ROM)

Having seen the advance screen shots of the game 2 years ago at E3 in L.A., I have long awaited the release of Pool of Radiance. I am an avid fan of the original game and series that took us to the Forgotten Realms. To say the graphics aren't stunning would be an understatement for they truly are. That is about the only thing I can say good about the game itself.

To describe it best would be Diablo on SLOW MOTION! Everything moves at a snails pace, including combat which is more tedious than it is worth - to boot, the game is mostly combat, little story told within and what is told is rarely spoken and hard to read. To bring up a menu for ANYTHING requires right clicking, then clicking on a subheading, then on the final choice and FINALLY on the monster, character or object you want to do the ability on. Ease of controls is something this game is not. Reading your characters health requires another sub command within a command, etc. Anyone who has played these games before knows that ease of controls is key to enjoying any game.

Characters walk slowly everywhere except in combat. You cannot move one character ahead of the party to scout around since you cannot be 10' from the rest it seems. Scrolling on a map only goes as far as the size of your monitor, no farther, despite having uncovered the area from the 'fog' previously. All in all, the controls are horrible.

Character generation is extremely limiting despite what the reviews say. There are no bards, no true wizards (only sorcerer), no subclasses within the class like the Third Ed. rules offer (not to mention Baldur's Gate II), no gnomes, no female characters unless an elf-human-or half-elf, lack of a good spell list (only the basics are covered), the average weapons, no ammo to buy for ranged weapons (unlimited supply? Realism counts to some degree now), etc.

It is a poor adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons universe. Do not be fooled by the graphics alone. The third edition rules are touched on here and there but it is clearly not what any gamers would like or expect. For the first attempt by SSI, UbiSoft and Prima games to enter the D&D universe, it is a poor one at best. Stick with Baldur's Gate II and wait for the expansions in that series. Otherwise, there is Neverwinter Nights next year to look for. What an extreme disappointment this was. After just one day, I am already returning the software. Sad and a true disappointment..

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The bigger the hype, the harder they fall, October 9, 2001

By 

Yu-jin Chia "Yu-Jin Chia" (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (CD-ROM)

There are some games that everyone has been waiting for that just don't quite meet expectations. Notables in this category are X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Arcanum, and Dune 2000. Then there are titles that fall far short of what they were expected to be. Force Commander, for instance. And then you have the titles that are so sloppily done you run a virus check on the discs- just in case. Enter Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor.

Where to start... where to start. Well, I suppose we can talk about PoR's multiplay, which was supposed to be the next best thing in D&D. Random dungeons and plentiful treasure would make it as good as Diablo and Baldur's Gate combined. That would be all very wonderful, if it worked. Don't even try TCP/IP- it doesn't work at all. You also are unable to multitask, and the game has a habit of crashing violently when an instant message pops up.

Immediately obvious game problems include an incredibly boring beginning. If you've played Baldur's Gate, imagine wandering around killing rats in Candlekeep for about 10 hours. That's basically how the first dungeon of PoR is like, except that the 'rats' often get lucky and kill you. The Dungeon Master in this game is someone that I would really like to punch, if he/she were corporeal. After clearing out the entire dungeon, be prepared for the shock of your life when you realize you've gained a total of 1,500 experience. Divide by 4 and nobody has gotten even close to a level. By this time, you've probably been hacked up any number of ways, since a critical hit by even a stupid orc will probably kill a character.

There aren't enough classes in the game, and multiclassing is so unattractive as to be worthless. Just reading the manual can tell you that much- it's a choice between low levels all around or a character getting an experience percentage cut, as if the overall lack of available experience wasn't bad enough.

The game screen is too small. Your vision is so impaired that you'll often discover enemies not by seeing them, but by entering combat mode. On that note, enemies from an extreme distance will often join a melee. This doesn't make it hard- just annoying as you have to wait for that squad of skeletons to hobble over and swing at air. Enemies have an odd ability to materialize out of thin air in plain sight. You also can't divide your party up, since they must remain a certain distance from the leader. This makes it hard to plan an ambush or scout an area with a hidden thief.

Combat is both the best and worst aspect of this game. On one hand, you get to see some nice spells and full action swordplay. On the other hand, you can't retreat without letting your enemies put in a few extra swings (they get one no matter what), and the enemies you fight are boring and annoying. Since you'll be so low level for so long, you'll be missing left and right, so it'll take ages to end even an easy battle. The game's turn-based system makes this doubly tedious, and you'll find that battles that would be finished in seconds in Baldur's Gate can take minutes in Pool of Radiance.

Okay, so after hearing all this bad stuff, you must think that at LEAST the music has to be good. Bad news. It's the most boringly repetitive game soundtrack since Pong. The sound effects in general are very few and unimpressive, and the combat music has a tendency to make you even more sleepy than you already are from clicking on all those stupid orcs.

The only good thing about Pool of Radiance- and one that it really does shine at- is the graphics. They are on par with Baldur's Gate's artistically rendered backgrounds, except that these are 3-d. The miniatures and spells are quite impressive to look at, as are the enemies you meet. It's a pity there are so few of these, or the game might actually make it as a Diablo 2 wannabe.

Bottom line: This is one for the bargain bin. SSI has a history of putting out sloppy D&D titles since the original Pool of Radiance, and this only adds a new number to that legacy.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Baldur's Gate on Valium, February 14, 2003

By 

David Watts (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (CD-ROM)

I wanted to like this game. I really did. I was so excited when I got it. It was one of the first games to use 3rd Edition Rules Ad&D, complete with an old-school turn based combat system. My excitement would quickly turn to disgust, though.

It becomes apparent that this game was rushed right when you first create your party. The characters look utterly bland and generic, and customizability is extremely limited (ooo, my mage can have either a blue robe or black robe). Conspicuously missing are the Druid, Bard, and Wizard classes. Why these were not included is beyond me, and takes away from the authenticity and depth of the game. Also, you are not able to choose your own feats. For those who are unfamiliar with 3rd edition rules, feats are special abilities that you gain upon leveling up that enhance your character. Normally, you can choose which feats to take, but in this game they're all chosen for you as you level up. Ridiculous.

Things don't get any better after that. You're immediately thrust into a battle upon starting the game. Battles are full-turn based, with one character taking an action, then the next, etc, etc. Combat is excruciatingly long. Character animations are slow...prepare to be bored to tears while waiting for fifteen zombies to slowly lurch across the playfield before you can take any action (and wait again the next time around). The most frustrating aspect of combat, though, is the miss rate of your physical combatants. It's not uncommon to go a few rounds with all of your party memebers hitting absolutely NOTHING. In a real-time game like Baldur's Gate, this isn't so bad, since everything is happening at once, but in a game like this, it can make what should be simple and quick battles take FOREVER. After about ten minutes of both sides swinging at each other like they were playing pinata, I finally kill the three or four orcs at the beginning of the game and am rewarded with about 20xp for each of my party members. It takes 1000 to reach level 2. Needless to say, leveling is painfully slow. Expect to play for hours and hours without advancing a single level, even early on when leveling should be relatively quick. In addition, to make things quite lopsided, you'll find troves of uber equipment, often in the first dungeon. My level 3 Barbarian was wielding a +3 Axe at one point, which is analogous to giving an Uzi to a kindergartener, and a practice any self-respecting DM would stay far away from.

My biggest gripe with this game is magic and magic-based classes. As I stated before, the Wizard class is completely absent from the game. While the Sorcerer is a great class in its own right, the Wizard adds an old school and authentic feel, and it's sorely missed in this game. Aside from that, what IS there isn't much to write home about, either. Upon looking at my game's manual, I was appalled at the paltry collection of spells available to spellcasters. NO level 9 spells, and few higher level spells, with no creative or innovative spells whatsoever. Spellcasters themselves also leave a lot to be desired. In short, don't pick a Sorcerer for your party unless you want to be lugging around a dead weight xp hog with the durability of tissue paper for a very good portion of the game. Early on, your caster will start with at the very most 6 hit points, and cannot wear any sort of armor. This means that if an orc decides to turn his axe on our robed buddy, he won't last much longer than a round or two. The said orc while also laugh mockingly with when the sorcerer tries to defend himself by shooting a pretty little red bolt at him which scratches the orc for 2 damage. The sorcerer can cast this same little red bolt 4 times before exhausting his spell reserves, making him even more helpless. He could always try attacking with his equipped weapon, but he may as well be firing a musket at a penny 100 yards away, while blindfolded. I know mages are supposed to be weak when starting out and come into their own at higher levels, but as I mentioned before, levels comes extremely slowly, so it will be a long an arduous path before your mage can actually do anything other than die. This was one of the main reasons I stopped playing in disgust, since I'm a big fan of magic users and they're practically useless for a good portion of this game.

In conclusion, an overhyped game that deserves to be forgotten. [Money] wasted that I'll never get back.

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